The rigid inspection, testing, and repairing provided for by Scientific Management provides against accidents from defects in equipment, tools, or material.  The fact that instructions are written, provides against wrong methods of handling work.[16] The concentrated attention caused by standardization, is a safeguard against accidents that occur from the worker’s carelessness.[17] The proper allowance of rest for overcoming fatigue, insures that the worker’s mind is fresh enough to enable him to comply with standards, and, finally, the spirit of cooeperation that underlies Scientific Management is an added check against accidents, in that everyone is guarding his fellows as well as himself.

PROGRESS OF STANDARDIZATION ASSURED.—­As Scientific Management becomes older, progress will be faster, because up to this time there has been a hindrance standing in the way of rapid advancement of the best standards.  This hindrance has been the tendency of habits of thought coinciding with former practice.  For example, the design of concrete building for years followed the habit of thinking in terms of brick, or wood, or steel, and then attempting to design and construct in reinforced concrete.  Again, in the case of the motor car, habits of thinking in vehicles drawn by animals for years kept the design unnecessarily leaning toward that of horse vehicles.  As soon as thought was in terms of power vehicles, the efficient motor truck of to-day was made, using the power also for power loading and power hoisting, as is now done in motor trucks specially designed for transporting and handling pianos and safes.  So, also, while the thought was of traditional practice, standard practice was held back.  Now that the theories of standardization are well understood, standardization and standards in general can advance with great rapidity.

CHAPTER VI FOOTNOTES:  ==============================================

 1.  Compare R.T.  Dana and W.L.  Sanders, Rock Drilling, chap.  XVI.
 2.  The idea of perfection is not involved in the standard of
    Scientific Management.  Morris Llewellyn Cooke, Bulletin No. 5,
    of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching,
    p. 6.
 3. Cost of Manufactures.
 4.  Sully, The Teacher’s Handbook of Psychology, pp. 290-292.
 5.  C.B.  Going, Methods of the Sante Fe, p. 66.
 6.  For desirability of standard signals see R.T.  Dana, Handbook of
    Steam Shovel Work, p. 32.
 7.  Stratton, Experimental Psychology and Culture, pp. 268-269.
 8.  F.W.  Taylor, Shop Management, para. 285, Harper Ed.,
    pp. 123-124.
 9.  F.W.  Taylor, Shop Management, revised 1911, pp. 124-125.
10.  F.W.  Taylor, On the Art of Cutting Metals, A.S.M.E., No. 1119. 11.  Stratton, Experimental Psychology and Culture, p. 11. 12.  Mary Whiton Calkins, A First Book in Psychology,